


Y Ddraig Goch

by subcircus



Category: Ivor the Engine, Torchwood
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-02
Updated: 2010-03-02
Packaged: 2017-10-07 16:23:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/66890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/subcircus/pseuds/subcircus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are many tales about Torchwood. Some of them are true. On the wall of the Hub is a picture of a red Welsh Dragon. This is the story of why that came to be there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Y Ddraig Goch

**Author's Note:**

  * For [a_lanart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_lanart/gifts).



Ianto huffed out a breath that crystallised in the cold morning air as he and Jack made their way through a pasture toward a lonely hill, where a solitary thin line of smoke drifted up into the air.

"Remind me again why we're trudging through a field in the middle of North Wales, sir?" he asked, his polite tone not quite masking his irritation.

"I have to call on an old friend. I made a promise to check up on him," Jack replied cryptically and forged on ahead. Ianto inwardly growled in frustration. He was used to Jack being cryptic, and he was used to random field trips, even if it was to a literal field and even if it was to North Wales. But he couldn't quite figure out why they'd brought oven gloves.

They walked on and up the hill until they reached the top, a flat circle that reminded Ianto of a volcanic crater. Once there, Jack motioned him to stop confused, Ianto did so and watched. Jack reached into his rucksack and pulled out two oven gloves before leaning down and lifting up a large rock. As he did so, Ianto felt a rush of heat from underneath that created steam on contact with the air. Once the steam had cleared, Ianto looked down into the hill and saw a creature nestled inside that looked to Ianto like a small red dragon.

"Borada Jack Harkness!"

"Borada, old friend," Jack replied with a smile and knelt down beside the small, red creature. Ianto stood nervously behind Jack.

"Is it alien?"

"Shame on you, Ianto Emrys Jones! Fancy not recognising a Welsh Dragon when you see one. He's as native to this land as you are," Jack admonished as he held out one gloved hand to tickle the dragon under the chin. "How are you, Idris?"

"Mustn't grumble, Jack," Idris replied.

"He's red hot," Ianto said, before feeling embarrassed for pointing out the obvious.

"Idris has to live in fire, which keeps him red hot. If he didn't, then he'd die. That's why he stays in Smoke Hill, it's a dormant volcano," Jack explained, all the while tickling Idris. It was such an intimate gesture that Ianto suddenly found himself feeling part embarrassed and part jealous. Deciding he needed to focus on something else, he asked Jack for an explanation.

"How long have you known Idris, sir?"

"Oh, we go way back. Idris helped me save the world once."

*-*

Not very long ago, in the top left-hand corner of Wales, there was a railway. It wasn't a very long railway or a very important railway, but it was called The Merioneth and Llantisilly Rail Traction Company Limited, and it was all there was.

And in a shed, in a siding at the end of the railway, lived the Locomotive of the Merioneth and Llantisilly Rail Traction Company Limited, which was a long name for a little engine so his friends just called him Ivor.

One of those friends was Jones the Steam, who kept the coals stoked in Ivor's furnace and ran him up and down the tracks of the Merioneth and Llantisilly Rail Traction Company Ltd. Every morning, Jones the Steam would come to Ivor's shed, stoke the fire, and take Ivor down to Llantiog Station to get the day's work from Dai the Station.

That morning, like any other, Ivor and Jones the Steam arrived at Llantiog Station, but Dai the Station wasn't alone, there was a strange man stood on the platform.

"Morning, Dai bach," Jones greeted, but Dai didn't answer, he seemed very distracted by something the stranger had just said to him.

Jones hopped off Ivor's footplate and onto the platform to find out what was occurring. It was only when he was right next to the two men that Dai finally noticed his arrival.

"Oh, morning, Jones," he said. The stranger grinned at Jones and then held out his hand.

"Captain Jack Harkness; pleased to meet you."

"Likewise, I'm sure. American is it?"

"Not quite," the Captain replied with a friendly smile. "Now, look, I'm in a bit of a fix, and I was hoping you could help me out. I'm trying to get to Smoke Hill. Do you think you could take me there?"

"On Ivor?" Jones asked. Dai the Station was suddenly quite cross.

"Now, look here, Captain. You never said anything about travelling on Ivor. There's regulations, see? You can't go transporting people on a goods train."

"I understand that, but trust me when I say this is of vital importance and I have the full backing of Her Majesty's Government. Regulations are not a problem," Harkness explained with a smile and handed a piece of paper to Dai. Whatever was on the paper clearly made him nervous, but he soon rallied himself again.

"Oh, well, in that case you'd better be off then. But mind you take these goods with you, they have to be at Grumbly Gasworks by Eleven, you hear?" Dai instructed and pointed to several boxes sitting on the platform.

"Don't worry; have I ever been late, Dai bach?" Jones replied with a smile before beginning to load the boxes onto Ivor.

Within minutes they were off down the line toward Smoke Hill. Jones was going to drop Captain Harkness off, then head to Grumbly Town to make his delivery before returning to take the Captain back to Llantiog.

It didn't take very long to reach Smoke Hill and the Captain was very friendly to both Jones and Ivor. He seemed fascinated that Ivor had a personality of his own but they reached the hill before Jones could answer too many of Harkness' questions. He let him off Ivor's footplate and then with a toot from Ivor they were off on their way again.

*-*

Jack stood by the side of the line, watching the little engine disappear around the bend before flipping open his VM and taking readings. He would have to investigate the little engine more; no human technology should have sentience yet. But Ivor seemed innocent enough and for now he had more pressing concerns. He turned and began to climb Smoke Hill, following the readout on his VM.

Something had fallen through the Rift in this vicinity, and the energy readings they had got at the Hub led them to believe it was alien tech, so Jack had been dispatched to retrieve whatever it was. From the readings he was now looking at, Jack was almost certain that it was a weapon of some kind.

When he reached the summit, he began looking around for the device, but he could see nothing on the ground. No device, and no tell-tale holes or craters where it may have fallen. As he wandered around, he tripped and was sent sprawling to the ground. He got up, dusted himself off and turned to investigate what had tripped him. It was a simple stone, but when he tripped he dislodged it, revealing that the top of the hill was hollow. He knelt down and pulled the stone the rest of the way off, but he quickly dropped it because the stone was as hot as an oven.

Gasping in pain, Jack leaned over the opening cautiously and peered inside. To his great surprise, Jack discovered two things: Smoke Hill was in fact a dormant volcano; something he didn't think existed in Wales. Secondly, curled up in the heart of the volcano, fast asleep, there was a small dragon.

Jack knew of the existence of dragons, he had cleaned up after some that had fallen through the Rift and in his service at the Time Agency someone thought it would be funny to let one loose on London. But he had believed them all to be extinct in this time and reality.

This one was a relatively harmless breed; the Small Red Welsh, or Heraldic Dragon, never grew to the terrifying size of the beasts of myth, and it was intelligent and generally civil.

It must have sensed Jack's presence, because it woke up and, blinking, looked up at him through the smoke.

"Borada," he said.

"Borada," Jack replied and flashed him a smile. "Sorry to disturb you, but I'm looking for a device that should be around here somewhere. You haven't seen it, have you?"

"Oh, is that what that small box was? It fell past me and landed in the lava two days ago. Woke me up, it did!" the dragon replied.

"Fell in? Oh no," Jack replied dismayed and peered further into the volcano. The heat was almost unbearable from where he was, he had no idea how he could possibly retrieve the weapon now. He checked the readings again and realised that the energy signals were growing. "This is bad."

"Oh?" asked the dragon.

"The box was a weapon, a very powerful one, but I think the heat from the volcano is melting the box. It might explode and with energy readings this high it will take Wales with it, and probably most of Europe too," Jack explained. What he didn't add was that it might possibly take the rest of the world as well.

"I can fetch it for you," the dragon said with what Jack took to be a smile.

"Are you sure?"

"Oh yes, the heat is nothing to me, I like fire."

And with that, the little dragon flew up toward Jack before performing a loop-the-loop and diving gracefully into the lava below. Anxiously, Jack waited for what felt like a very long time even to one with his long life, although it was probably no more than ten minutes before there was a small pop below and the little dragon came shooting up out of the lava, clutching a small silver box in his claws. He flew up, out of Smoke Hill and dropped the box into a nearby puddle, which immediately turned to steam. Jack walked over and took some readings before gently prodding the box with the toe of his boot. When nothing happened, he bundled the still warm box in his greatcoat and turned back to the dragon, who was sitting on the grass.

"I don't even know your name," he said.

"I'm Idris."

"Captain Jack Harkness," Jack said and saluted with his free hand. "I don't know how to thank you, you've probably just saved the Earth, Idris," he added. Idris looked at the ground, and although his colour didn't change, Jack was almost certain he was blushing. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Oh no, thank you, I have everything I need right here," Idris replied. "Except…I have lovely friends in Jones the Steam, and Ivor and the choir, but one day they'll all be gone and I'll be alone," he added sadly. Jack beamed.

"Well, that I can take care of. I promise, Idris the dragon, that I will visit you once a year for as long as you live. You have my solemn oath, and I will keep a picture of you near to always remind me," Jack said. He wrapped one hand in the sleeve of his greatcoat and cautiously patted Idris on the head and the dragon leaned into the touch and made a sound like purring.

"But, Jack bach, you're human, and dragons live for a very long time," Idris protested.

"Don't you worry about that, Idris. This is the beginning of a long and wonderful friendship."


End file.
